BIO105 Organismal Biology, Fall 20091
BIO105 ORGANISMAL BIOLOGY Fall, 2009
Instructor:Dr. Mark Mills
Office:Agenstein 201GMailbox: Agenstein 201A
Phone:271-4384 E-mail :
Office hrs:9-10 MWF, 2-3 MW Additional times can be arranged
Course: BIO105 covers basic concepts and principles related to organismal diversity, behavior, natural history, morphology and homeostasis. Major mechanisms whereby organisms successfully fulfill the requirements of life will be studied. A variety of examples will demonstrate evolutionary strategies relating to morphology, life cycles, development, bioenergetics, and reproduction at the organismal level. The laboratory component is writing intensive and experimental in nature.
Textbooks1. REQUIRED:Campbell et al. (2008) Biology (8th ed.). Pearson Benjamin Cummings, San Francisco, CA.
Supplies:2. REQUIRED: A Handbook of Biological Investigation (7th ed.) by Ambrose et al.
3. REQUIRED: A laboratory journal (with graph paper, duplicate pages, and carbons or carbonless paper)
4. REQUIRED: An electronic student response device (clicker) will be used for attendance and quizzes.
5. SPSS software – convenient to have, but not required (available in several campus computer labs).
I expect you to read your textbook, otherwise I wouldn’t ask you to buy it.
Attendance:Lecture will meet MTWF from 12:00 PM until 12:50 PM in Popplewell 304. Attendance is mandatory (see p. 5). You must also be registered for one of the 4 lab sections which meet each week for 3 hours in Agenstein 215. Attendance in lab is also mandatory. Students will receive a "0" on journal entries, lab quizzes, and lecture quizzes if they are not present.
E-mail:Students will need an activated e-mail account to receive messages from me and for progress reports.
Grading:
LECTURE75%LABORATORY25 %
Exams (5)65%Lab Qz/Hw 5 %
Lecture Qz/Hw 5% Lab Journal 10 %
BioExplorations 5% Manuscript10 %
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*I reserve the right to alter the relative weights as well as the content of these categories.
Grade Scale: 90% -100% = A; 80% - 89% = B; 70% - 79% = C; 60% - 69% = D; Below 60% = F
Exams:I plan to administer 4 regular exams and a comprehensive final exam. You may drop your lowest exam score.
Make-UpIn general, I do not give make-up exams (however, you are allowed to drop one exam).
Exams:All make-up exams for college-excused absences must be scheduled by the student and must
be taken prior to the absence. If you miss an exam because of a death in your family or a severe illness or injury, you must provide a written statement from a doctor, other professional, or parent indicating the nature of the problem, and you must take the exam within one week of the scheduled date. Once I have returned the exams, you cannot make it up (you are allowed to drop one exam).
Honesty It is expected that all students will submit their own work in this course.
Policy: In cases of plagiarism or dishonesty during exams, quizzes, or other assignments, the student will receive a "0" on that activity. Subsequent infractions may result in removal from the course or university. Please read the MWSU Catalog and Student Handbook for additional policies.
Special Needs:If you have special needs as addressed by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), please contact the MWSU ADA coordinator, Michael Ritter (271-4330) or your instructor immediately. After proper documentation, reasonable efforts will be made to accommodate your special needs.
Biology Department Classroom Professionalism Policy:
While in lecture or laboratory class meetings, students are expected to act in a professional, courteous, and respectful manner in order to maintain a productive learning environment for all. The use of any personal electronic devices (cellular phones, PDAs, MP3 music players, etc.) during class time is not permitted, except for an emergency or as part of a class activity. Please turn all such devices off upon entering the classroom or laboratory. Unauthorized use of personal electronic devices during a class meeting may, at the discretion of the instructor, result in loss of any grading points for that meeting.
Introducing: BIO105 (Organismal Biology)
BIO105 is the entry-level biology course at MWSU developed specifically for Biology Majors, although some non-majors will take this course if it is appropriate for their career goals. Activities within this course are designed to assist our majors as they proceed through the diversity of required courses in biology, chemistry and math-related sciences. In addition to the topics of the course, instructors discuss career options and intern opportunities. Students are encouraged to become involved in departmental activities. Representatives of student organizations within our department often visit lecture and laboratories to invite BIO105 students to participate in department activities (work days, field trips, special lectures by guest speakers, etc.). Students in these organizations (The Biology Honor Society, Beta Beta Beta, the MWSU student chapter of The Wildlife Society, and The Pre-Professional Club) often act as tutors, unofficial advisors, and mentors for students in BIO105.
Students enrolled in BIO105 will use computers frequently during laboratory activities and lecture assignments. Students must activate their campus e-mail accounts. I will use your campus email to send announcements and progress reports. Check your campus email often.
This course is writing-intensive. Students are given many reading and writing assignments. Some of these involve specific reading assignments from handouts, the textbook, the internet or from materials placed on reserve in the library. One of these involves assessing a public presentation that is acceptable to the course instructor. A commercial laboratory manual is not used in BIO105. Instead, a laboratory journal approach is used. All information relating to each week’s laboratory experience is written by the student in his or her journal. This journal approach requires much responsibility and attention on the part of the student. Students are also required to prepare an extensive research manuscript that concerns a class laboratory experiment. This must be written in the standard format of biology journal articles.
The laboratory component of BIO105 emphasizes an investigative approach that involves data analysis and interpretation of experimental results. Most laboratory activities generate data that must be analyzed. Students regularly input lab data to computer databases and interpret the results. We have chosen this investigative-experimental approach to better prepare the student for future biology courses as well as their chosen field of study. In other words, BIO105 is not merely an introduction to the study of life, it is an introduction to science and the methods of scientific investigation.
Tentative* Lecture Schedule
*I reserve the right to alter this schedule at my discretion or as conditions dictate.
“BIO 106” indicates that the bulk of this material is covered in Dr. Daggett’s companion course, BIO 106Principles of Cell Biology, and that we will only cover selected topics in these chapters.
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WEEKLECTURE TOPICTEXT CHAPTERSEXAMS
(Monday)
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Aug. 24Intro & Nature of Science (1)
BIO 106Chemistry of Life (selected topics)(2-5)
Aug. 31Collecting Data, Data Analysis &
Interpretation, Statistics
Sept. 7NO CLASS MONDAY, LABOR DAY HOLIDAY
Cellular nature of life (selected topics)
Intro to Cell Form & Function(6-12)
BIO 106Intro to Energy Acquisition/Use(8-10)
Intro to Genetics(13-14)
Sept. 14Evolution, Natural Selection,(22-25)EXAM 1, Wed., Sept. 16
& other evolutionary processes
Sept. 21Phylogeny, Systematics, & Taxonomy(26)
Prokaryotes, Bacteria & Archaea(27)
Sept. 28Prokaryotes II(27)
Protists(28)
Oct. 5Fungi(31)
Plant Diversity, Form & Function(29-30, 35-39)EXAM 2, Wed., Oct. 7
NO CLASS FRIDAY, OCT. 9
Oct. 12Plants II (selected topics)(29-30, 35-39)
Oct. 19Animal Diversity, Form & Function(32-34, 40-51)
Animals: Invertebrates(33)
Oct. 26Animals: Invertebrates II(33)
Oct. 30 – Last Day to Withdraw or declare Audit
Nov. 2Animals: Vertebrates(34)EXAM 3, Wed., Nov.4
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DATELECTURE TOPICTEXT COVERAGEEXAMS
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Nov. 9Animals: Vertebrates II(34)
Nov. 16Vertebrate Form & Function(40-51)
Nov. 23Vertebrate Form & Function(40-51)
NO CLASS, NOV. 25-27, THANKSGIVING BREAK
Nov. 30Catch up or Special TopicsEXAM 4, Wed., Dec. 2
Dec. 4Last Day of classes – evaluations, return Exam 4
Dec. 7FINAL EXAM, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 11:30 am - 1:20 pm
Each student will be given one hard copy (i.e., paper) of this syllabus. If you need an additional copy, I will make available electronic copies on the Network drive(s) or through Web CT. All revisions to this syllabus will be announced in class and/or communicated through campus email. If you have any questions, please come and talk to me as soon as possible.
Have a good semester in BIO105 !
Course Attendance Policy
I view attendance as the student’s choice. You have registered and paid for this course, therefore it is your decision to attend or not. However, MWSU has university-wide rules concerning attendance (see below). If you miss a lecture, please ask a classmate for a copy of the notes and if needed stop by my office or contact me for clarification. DO NOT MISS LAB. Labs involve too much work on my part and too many non-reproducible activities for you to just get notes or make up in some manner. If you know prior to the scheduled lab that you will be unable to attend, please contact me and perhaps we can make other arrangements. Students are encouraged to attend a different lab section, with prior arrangement and approval, when they know beforehand that they will miss a lab. There is no way to schedule a make-up lab in BIO105. Reagents, equipment, and live materials are moved out of the lab after the last lab section each week and the lab is prepared for other courses or next week’s BIO105 laboratory experience.
The following directive originated from the Office of Academic and Student Affairs:
07/19/2006
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Attendance Policy for All 100-Level Courses
In order to improve student learning and retention, as well as to achieve compliance with federal financial aid policies, Western has implemented a mandatory attendance policy for students in all 100-and 200-level courses. Instructors are required to monitor and track student attendance. A student will be given an excused absence when acting as an official representative of the university, provided the student gives prior written verification from the faculty/staff supervisor of the event. Any additional excused absences are at the complete discretion of the instructor.
Maximum allowed unexcused absences accrued before the reporting of midterm grades:
Class meetings/week Maximum unexcused absences
1 / 12 / 3
3 / 5
4 / 7
5 / 9
When a student exceeds the maximum number of unexcused absences, instructors must report the student to the Registrar’s Office, who will administratively withdraw the student from the course and notify the Financial Aid Office to reduce financial aid as appropriate. From the midterm to the end of the course, faculty will assign grades according to their grading policies with regard to absences and record an FA when a student fails due to absences.
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What this Attendance Policy means for BIO105:
We meet 4 times in lecture with an additional meeting in lab each week. Therefore, in BIO105, if you have 10 unexcused absences, you will be administratively withdrawn from the course. The lab only meets 15 times; therefore, if you have more than 2 absences from lab for any reason (excused or not), I will start the process to have you removed from the course.
What constitutes an excused absence?
You will be given an excused absence when acting as an official representative of the university, provided you give prior written verification from the faculty/staff supervisor of the event. Furthermore, written documentation for medical emergencies, personal crises (funerals weddings, births, etc.), jury summons, etc. would be considered when evaluating the status of certain absences. All other absences will be deemed unexcused. The maximum number of unexcused absences allowed for BIO105 before the midterm report is 9. Thus, when you have 10 unexcused absences you will be reported to the Registrar’s Office, who will automatically withdraw you from this class. The Financial Aid Office will reduce financial aid as appropriate.
Note that in cases considered “excused absences”, the student is still responsible for all material covered in lab or lecture. Students are expected to submit any required homework assignments PRIOR to a scheduled excused absence. Make-up exams must be scheduled within one week of the excused absence.
The “excused” status does NOT provide students the opportunity to have make-up quizzes in the case of unannounced quizzes. Those “0” scores will simply be excused (indicated by an “e” in the grade-book) and not be used in the calculation of student grades.
MWSU Academic Honesty Policy and Due Process
Academic honesty is required in all academic endeavors. Violations of academic honesty include any instance of plagiarism, cheating, seeking credit for another’s work, falsifying documents or academic records, or any other fraudulent activity. Violations of academic honesty may result in a failing grade on the assignment, failure in the course, or expulsion from the University. When a student’s grade has been affected, violations of academic honesty will be reported to the Provost or designated representative on the Academic Honesty Violation Report forms. Please see the Western Student Handbook for specific activities identified as violations of this policy and the student due process procedure. This handbook is available online at
In cases of plagiarism or dishonesty during BIO105 exams, quizzes, or other assignments, the student will receive a "0" on that activity.
Guidelines for
BIO105 LABORATORY JOURNALS
Several objectives are central to your laboratory experience in biology courses. These objectives include an improvement in your abilities to formulate hypotheses, make observations, interpret results, and draw inferences. These objectives are in addition to the more traditional expectations of becoming familiar with equipment and demonstrating lecture topics.
Emphasis has been placed on the role of observation in the sciences as the source of new information. An organized record of these observations must be maintained if they are ever to lead to additional understanding of biological phenomena. Most biologists carefully record in a journal or a notebook, observations made during their field work or experiments. To help you develop this technique, we are asking you to keep adequate records of your observations in Biology 105 this semester by maintaining a laboratory diary or journal. Keeping laboratory observations in a well organized journal will assist you in placing your laboratory activities in the right perspective and will help you understand the various topics we will cover this semester. It will also give you sound practical experience for future investigations in upper-level courses.
The first page of every new journal write-up should have your NAME, the DATE, your laboratory SECTION, the WEEK of lab and the TITLE of the activity at the top of the page.
Each journal entry should have the major sections (see below) clearly titled. If any handouts concerning techniques or data are given, they should be permanently attached (stapled) to the journal in the appropriate place. Typically handouts are stapled to the back of the permanent page prior to where the material is discussed in your journal. As the semester proceeds, you will develop a table of contents in this section of your notebook.
This is NOT to be a typed, polished manuscript! However, care should be taken so that your comments are complete sentences (grammatically correct). ABBREVIATED, INCOMPLETE SENTENCES WHICH ARE SUBJECT TO LATER INTERPRETATION ARE OFTEN MISLEADING. It is to be completed primarily in lab during your laboratory meeting. It is NOT to be recopied! If there is not enough time during lab to finish recording your comments, leave space to fill in later. A bound journal is the most appropriate format; pages in a loose-leaf notebook tend to fall out and become lost.
Your instructor has chosen a laboratory notebook that has pages numbered in duplicate. At the completion of each laboratory activity, you will be expected to turn in the carbon copy of your journal entries for that lab meeting. Each journal entry will be graded on a 10-point scale. Entries should be completed for each laboratory meeting according to the following format.
Grading For BIO105 Laboratory Journal
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Title each Subsection below.
FINAL COMMENTS FROM PREVIOUS LAB (1PT): We will normally begin each laboratory session with a discussion of data from a previous lab activity. You are expected to include notes from these discussions. Your instructor will often distribute compiled data-sets and statistical analyses of the entire class data from some earlier experiment. Whenever these data handouts are given, attach these permanently in your journal. What can you conclude from an examination of the data analyses you have received from previous work? Compare the class data with your own individual data from that lab activity. Do you have to alter your conclusions from that lab?
INTRODUCTION TO CURRENT LAB (2pts): Notes from pre-lab lectures should be included here. Place the laboratory activity in perspective. State briefly, the specific purpose of the lab activity. Describe how this lab relates to other activities or discussions (lab and/or lecture). Include the general observations that have led to our conducting this laboratory study. Include the biological rationale or the objective for each experiment. State any hypotheses that are to be tested in lab.
MATERIALS & METHODS (2pts): Be as complete as possible in documenting the procedures for your lab activities. Don’t make lists of used materials, just indicate what you do in the order that you do it. Identify the major components of any experiments (i.e. independent vs. dependent variables, control vs. experimental groups, etc.). Again ... ABBREVIATED, INCOMPLETE SENTENCES WHICH ARE SUBJECT TO LATER INTERPRETATION ARE OFTEN MISLEADING. Remember, your journal entries must be complete enough that you could repeat the experiment later with only your journal for a guide.
RESULTS (3pts): Be sure to neatly record your data for all activities. Briefly summarize data in figures and tables, etc. Graphs and tables must be correctly labeled. You must have a number and title for all figures and tables. This includes handout materials as well as data tables that you complete during the lab. Tables and figures are numbered independently but consecutively throughout the semester by laboratory session. For example, your first table and figure in week two would be numbered Table 2.1 and Figure 2.1, respectively. If you repeat experiments, save all sets of results for comparison of data. This may help identify problems in techniques. Include a written statement (with statistical calculations if appropriate) that describe your results.